Tellenlied
The Bundeslied ("Song of the Confederacy") or Tellenlied ("Song of Tell") is a patriotic song of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Its original composition dates to the Burgundian Wars period (1470s). The oldest extant manuscript text was written in 1501, the first publication in print dates to 1545. It consists of stanzas of six lines each, with a rhyming scheme of A-A-B-C-C-B. It is one of the oldest existing records of the legend of Swiss national hero William Tell.
It is also known as Altes Tellenlied "Old Song of Tell", in order to distinguish it from later compositions known as Tellenlied, such as that by Hieronymus Muheim (1613) or that by
Composition
The song in its extant form was composed in several stages during the later 15th century. Since it ends with the death of Charles the Bold, it cannot have been completed before 1477. But since stanza 21 names the duchy of Milan as in league with the Confederacy, that portion was likely written earlier, in 1474 or 1475, as duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza also entered a pact with Burgundy in 1475, lending it military support against the Swiss, much to the discontent of the Confederacy, so that a Swiss poet writing in 1477 would probably not have mentioned Milan as an ally. The earliest part of the poem was probably just stanzas 1 to 13 (the Tell legend), to which the remaining text was added as the Burgundy War unfolded.[1]
The earliest record of the poem is in a manuscript written by Ludwig Sterner in 1501, where it has the title von der eidgenossen pundt "of the pact of the
Although
Structure and synopsis
The standard version of the Song of the Founding of the Confederation comprises 35 stanzas, each containing six lines. Another version omits five verses of the Tell narrative.[3]
The first 14 stanzas explore the foundation and
Stanzas 15 to 23 describe the merits of the Swiss Confederacy. Stanzas 15 and 16 enumerate the eight cantons (Acht Ort) that formed the Confederacy up to 1480, viz.
. Stanza 17 addsThe final 12 stanzas focus on the Burgundian Wars.[3] The poem records the defeats of
References
- Bergier, Jean-François. Wilhelm Tell: Realität und Mythos. München: Paul List Verlag, 1990.
- L. Tobler, Schweizerische Volkslieder; mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen (1882), pp. 1–5 (online edition, stanzas 1–9).
- E. L. Rochholz, Tell und Gessler in Sage und Geschichte. Nach urkundlichen Quellen (1877), pp. 180–187 (online edition, 35 stanzas).